Moscow hails the agency’s readiness to restart inspecting North Korea in strict compliance with the IAEA Charter, the Russian diplomat said

MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could resume inspections in North Korea only after a political and diplomatic solution is reached, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said at the IAEA Board of Governors session.

"The IAEA’s renewed inspections might be a discussion point only after a political and diplomatic solution is found, and for the purpose all the concerned sides will have to work on," the diplomat said. "Russia proceeds from that fact that the IAEA remains the only international agency that has sufficient authority and technical capabilities to monitor and control North Korea’s nuclear activity, including in the context of efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula."

In his statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s site on Thursday, Ulyanov pointed out that Moscow hails "the agency’s readiness to restart inspecting North Korea in strict compliance with the IAEA Charter."

"We do justice to efforts of the Department of Safeguards and are ready to continue providing any possible assistance to it," the Russian envoy said.

Russia calls on the IAEA to have doors open for possible contacts with Pyongyang.

"As long as the IAEA is to play a significant role in ensuring an exclusively peaceful nature of North Korea’s nuclear activities, we strongly urge the agency’s management to hold doors open for possible contacts with North Korean representatives," Ulyanov concluded.